


Survival

by simply_shipping



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-08-20
Packaged: 2018-02-14 01:05:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2172060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simply_shipping/pseuds/simply_shipping
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Corbin wants someone to teach Jenny Mills the finer points of surviving anything the world can throw at her, he calls upon an old colleague: SHIELD Agent Melinda May.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Survival

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flipflop_diva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/gifts).



When May got a call from August Corbin, she was shocked. Corbin had been her SO when she first joined SHIELD, and she had liked and respected him, but they hadn't been buddies. She hadn't heard from him since before he went inactive, as close to retirement as most SHIELD agents got. His reason for contacting her didn't really clear things up. He wanted to her to teach someone some basic survival and fighting skills, the sort of thing they taught incoming recruits. The basic "Don't Die" class at the academy.

He wouldn't answer any of her questions about why he didn't just sponsor this girl to the academy, where she'd get that class and more, but when she asked why he wanted her to do it, she could just about hear his smile even over the phone. "Who else? You're the one everyone calls on when things go bad. You're the Cavalry, and this girl could use a little rescuing. What do you say? Are you in?"

She owed him. May knew she did. Not for pulling her into SHIELD, because she would have found her way there anyway. But that time in Marseille, when she had needed a little rescuing of her own on her second field op, he had known something was wrong and saved her ass even though her rescue call hadn't gone off like it should have. He had never called in the debt, and he wasn't even bringing it up now. But May knew what she owed, and like hell was she going to refuse him a favor. Even one as ridiculous as this.

That was how she ended up renting a cabin up in Vermont. She had only been able to get just over a week of personal time, and that only because she had told them that it was a favor for Corbin. He still had friends in SHIELD, and even without knowing the details, they had pulled enough strings to get May her first real bit of time off in nearly two years. And she was going to spend it babysitting some wet-behind-the-ears novice and trying to cram months worth of training into a week. She wasn't exactly looking forward to it.

The cabin was only lightly furnished, but May and her guest/student wouldn't need much. A couple of beds, a table and some chairs in the kitchen. A couch in the living room, but May pushed that as far out of the way as she could. The important thing about the cabin was that it was secluded, and it was still early enough in the spring that the area was mostly deserted. They'd have plenty of privacy.

May made her final checks around the area, then sat down on the front steps, where she'd have a good view of the lane leading up to the cabin, then took out her knives and started sharpening them. She had just finished the third when a car trundled slowly up the lane. She put the blades away as she recognized Corbin in the driver's seat, and stood as the car came to a halt.

Corbin climbed out as soon as the engine turned off, the young woman in the passenger seat a beat behind him. May shook Corbin's hand as she sized up her temporary student. 

Young, maybe nineteen or twenty, with that wary look May was used to seeing in recruits who hadn't exactly taken the smoothest routes into SHIELD. Run-ins with the local law, maybe. It would explain how she'd gotten to know Corbin, who (for reasons well beyond May's comprehension) had become the sheriff in the town where he'd settled. The girl didn't look any happier about this week than May was, either -- though it was possible that something else was irritating her. May preferred to think that it was the week ahead. May didn't want to be the only unhappy with the plans.

That all took barely a second or two, and May looked back at Corbin. "Fury said to tell you that if you ever want an active assignment again, say the word and he'll find something for you," she told him.

Corbin shook his head. "I'm happy in Sleepy Hollow. I think I'll stay put." He put a hand on the girl's shoulder when she came around the car to stand next to him. "Jenny Mills, Agent Melinda May."

Jenny Mills. May nodded at the girl, thinking again. She had looked up Corbin's last mission when she had heard that he went inactive. It had been an 0-8-4 out in Sleepy Hollow, the town where he'd settled, but there hadn't appeared to be anything else interesting about the case, so she'd always just assumed that he liked the look of the area and decided to go inactive because he was getting old for field work and didn't want to get tied down to a desk. It happened that way sometimes. But the locals who'd been involved in the incident had been a pair of teenage girls named Mills, and it all suddenly seemed like there was a bit more to things than an old man wanting to retire in a pretty town.

"You can go drop your stuff inside," she told Jenny. "Either bedroom, it doesn't matter." May waited until Jenny was inside, safely out of earshot before she rounded on Corbin. "Mills? What are you up to, Corbin?"

He gave her a bland look. "What makes you think I'm up to anything? I'm just an old man enjoying his retirement and trying to keep a local girl safe."

"Bullshit."

He grinned. "Well, maybe it is. But it's nothing to do with SHIELD. Just teach her what you can in a week, and we'll be even."

May was used to not being told exactly what was going on. Field agents usually weren't. There was too much risk if the enemy managed to capture you alive. That didn't mean she liked it. In her experience, it was usually the things you didn't know that came back to bite you on the ass. And from the grim look Corbin cast after Jenny, this looked like it would have one hell of a bite.

She sighed. She did owe him one, a big one. And she trusted him, as much as she trusted anyone. "Okay," she said. "Then get out of here. Your girl and I have a lot to do in a week, and we'll get started faster without any long good-byes."

"Jenny's not much for long good-byes," Corbin said. "And neither am I." Still, he got back in the car, rolling down his window to give her one last instruction. "Try to have her still in one piece when I come back next week, May."

She gave him a not-entirely-reassuring smile and watched as his car rumbled back down the lane. 

Jenny burst out of the cabin just before the car drove out of sight around a bend. "He left?"

"I told him to. We've got work to do. Come on."


End file.
